Monthly Archives: October 2012

Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I’m loving it even more now that we’re back in New England. Unfortunately, some of the most spectacular fall colors take place while I’m driving with no place to pull over and take pictures. Those sugar maples with their bright orange and fiery red leaves are just mind-blowing.

We’re still settling in. Spent over four hours at the DMV (which was already an hour drive away) getting our new CT driver’s licenses and registering my car. We’re officially Connecticut residents now! I was a bit sad to have to turn in my California driver’s license, but glad I could keep my CA plates. Weird sentimentality, perhaps.

Sharing some photo love:

Trixie and I are still taking 2 or 3 walks a day while we can – while the weather is nice!

A huge perk of living on the point is that we get both sunrises and sunsets! This is sunset.

We finally had some downtime to go hiking in Bluff Point State Park. We didn’t get to walk all the way to the bluff (which is ranked as one of the top ten birdwatching sites in the state) because we had a house hunting appointment to make. We’ll definitely make a point of getting there next time! Trixie seemed to really love her time out in the woods and on the shore.

Loved walking through the woods, watching leaves rain down like flecks of gold in the sunlight.

This is the view from one of the houses we looked at today. Lovely, yes???

As I write up this blog post, Bob is across the street on a pier fishing on the ocean. Heavenly! Yes, I do have moments of extreme home-sickness. I miss my CA friends and family tremendously, and I miss our home there – but I have to say if we had to move anywhere, I’m glad we moved here!

Took the train to NYC to visit a very good friend, yesterday. She has the best taste in chocolate and cookies and all sweets in general (probably because she is very sweet, herself). Once again, she introduced me to amazing flavors.
Best. Cookies. Ever!The most amazing cookies can be found at Levain Bakery. They are the puffiest cookies I’ve ever seen and they almost completely covered the palm of my hand. I had to use a knife to cut a cookie to share with Bob. (Yes, it’s truly amazing I didn’t gobble them up on the train ride home.) It slices like cake! And it tastes heavenly! Moist with just a hint of a crispy shell and absolutely full of flavor! YUMMMMM!!!! I got the dark chocolate chocolate chip (pictured above) and the dark chocolate peanut butter chip. Both were incredible and I can’t wait to go back and try more! MMMMMmmmm!

As some of you know, we have (temporarily) left our lovely Northern CA home for a fabulous stint in coastal Connecticut. We moved into our new home right on the water, yesterday. We are awed by the glorious sight of the ocean right in front of us, the smell and taste of salt in the air, and we were lulled to sleep by the lullaby of the waves. This morning, we rose in time to walk Trixie as the sun rose above the horizon. We watched cormorants, gulls, and egrets on the water, and were surprised by a large red-fox crossing the street in front of us. I think we’re going to love it here, and I’m going to love sharing our new adventures with you!

I enjoyed the view from the porch rail.

This was my view late Saturday afternoon.

This morning, in my half-awake state, I forgot to bring my good camera. The following photos were taking with my iPhone 4S.

Sunrise on our walk.

Our morning walk.

I can’t believe I get to live here (for the next few months, at least, we’re temporarily renting an house at off-season rates). Yesterday, I watched a wedding party on a far-away pier and got this shot. I do love the zoom on my Canon! They look very happy!

How many times is too many to visit a restaurant for a delicious meal? I know it’s not three days in a row, because I think I could go back again today to Bridge.

The restaurant is located in Westerly, RI, right on the Pawcatuck River, which means if you sit on the patio you get gorgeous views of said river.
Bob and I stopped here for dinner because it was close to our hotel in Stonington, CT. The menu was mouthwatering and I was sad I couldn’t try everything listed.

We started off with one of the specials of the day: Maine steamers. (Apologies for the blurry photo – I only had my iPhone with me.) Bob and I love clams, but we’d never had these before. WOW! My new favorite! They were amazingly sweet for clams!

For our mains, Bob had the ribeye which was also one of the specials. I followed suit by choosing a special as well:

Wild Coho salmon with a honey-dijon glaze. Amazing! The item that almost caused me not to order the dish was the Brussel sprouts. I have never had a Brussel sprout. All the jokes and complaints about them kept me away. As I speared a sprout, I said to Bob, “Here it goes. My first Brussel sprout.” That caught our waiter’s ear and he couldn’t believe I’d never eaten one before. I took a big bite and….Hey! It was good! Our waiter said they are best fried in bacon fat! LOL I can’t imagine anything tasting bad when cooked in bacon!

The next day, I went to lunch with a new friend and guess where we went? Yep! We sat on the patio in the warm autumn sun and enjoyed a great meal. No photos, but I did thoroughly enjoy the fig and brie on toasted baguette! I had a peach crisp for dessert. Sweet and tart and yummy!

And last night? Bob came back from work tired, and it was raining, so we opted to go back to the Bridge again! My third day in a row – and we ended up with the waitress who’d served me lunch the day before. 😉 This time I decided to go for the prie fix menu. I started with the New England clam chowder and fritter:

I am a huge fan of New England clam chowder. When we lived in San Mateo, Bob, our teen daughter, and I would drive almost 2 hours to Monterey Bay to The Fish Hopper just for the clam chowder. Now that we’re in New England, I am thrilled to know I can get great clam chowder any time! The Bridge’s chowder was my favorite of all the clam chowders I’ve had yet! Creamy, clammy, and just mmm, mmm, good!

My next course, grilled fish tacos. VERY delicious and I ate both of them! Bob ordered:

Fresh caught monkfish with beet risotto. He ate it all so it must have been fabulous.

For dessert, I had the pumpkin bread pudding, which I coveted when my friend ordered it the day before. It was, no surprise, amazing – pumpkiny but not too sweet with a hearty dollop of fresh whipped cream.

If you ever get a chance to dine here, DO IT! And if you visit me, I’ll take you there! 😉 (PS – they have a great selection of vegetarian/vegan items, too.)

And for you careful readers, yes, we just three days ago moved here to New England from California. Look for posts of our brand new adventures, here!